[RobertR]

can someone explain how an amp can affect soundstage. I can see how different headphones influence this factor but fail to understand why tubes and solid state are different.

I know that tubes can have a lush or softer sound vs. solid state but isnt soundstage more of a physical thing like speaker placement?

 

[kwhead]

Well, if frequency response or phase are grossly wrong than that would have an effect, but why would you even start with such an amp?

At the risk of being a party pooper, prepare for re-gushing of marketing speak and psuedo-science babble to follow...

 

[darkclouds]

It's more about how good the specific amp is rather than the difference between tube vs solid state.

 

[dd3mon]

I don't know why they sound different - but they do. There are many things in audio I have no explanation for. People don't like not understanding things, so they make an attempt to explain. This is the basis of mythology, science, (religion, but that is best left to another forum

), etc.

I can't tell you why tubes sound differently than transistors. Tubes are inferior nearly every technilogical aspect, however science and technology (as dear to me as they are) - will never get me to sell my tube amp. Cables are in the same situation. Some things must be heard/seen/experienced to be believed.

One thing to avoid *cough*kwhead*cough* - making statements about things you've had no first hand experience with. Blind faith in anything (including the current scientific knowledge) is a weakness IMO.

-dd3mon

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally posted by dd3mon I don't know why they sound different - but they do. There are many things in audio I have no explanation for. People don't like not understanding things, so they make an attempt to explain. This is the basis of mythology, science, (religion, but that is best left to another forum ), etc. Blind faith in anything (including the current scientific knowledge) is a weakness IMO. -dd3mon

Agreed. That's why it's a good reason to educate oneself on current scientific knowledge, so one's faith (to whatever extent) is open-eyed rather than blind.

I assume you mean by the above that blind faith in one's ears is a weakness as well.

 

[CRESCENDOPOWER]

.

 

[Earwax]

Quote:

Originally posted by RobertR can someone explain how an amp can affect soundstage.

I'm clearly no expert, but... It seems to me that all an amp can do is either pass through all the "soundstage" that's on the original recording or muck it up in some way. I don't see how an amp could add anything that isn't already in the recording.

 

[kwhead]

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that because one can't think of a good explanation why one hears a difference that the difference doesn't exist (although there are plenty of examples where people do honestly convince themselves they here differences when there aren't any).

There are two problems in the audio community:

"I can't measure it, so it must not exist"

Of course, you better make sure whatever you are measuring is actually related to the audible effect in question...

"I can tell what color the chassis was painted by listening to the amp, this is because of microphonics caused by absorbtion of light modulated by the acoustic waves. The light passes through the air and then hits the amp, the color of the amp effects how it is absorbed, how could it not effect the sound?"

Just because you can claim some chain of cause and effect doesn't make it detectable or reasonable. And how we percieve sound can be drastically effected by things other than an acoustic wave (namely, for example, by how much money recently exited our wallet)...

Anywho, sorry for the gross over generalization, I wasn't trying to place myself in the first camp, but was mainly whining that questions like that posed often bring out members of the second.

And then just to make me look like a fool, all the responses that then did show up were reasonable and well founded...

 

[RobertR]

Quote:

Originally posted by darkclouds It's more about how good the specific amp is rather than the difference between tube vs solid state.

to clarify my original question: how can 2 solid state or 2 tube amps differ in soundstage not solely an issue of tube vs. transistor.
i believe that an amp cannot create a soundstage thats not in the recording but it can perhaps inhibit the perception of same by not reproducing details or "clues" that yield soundstage.

 

[darkclouds]

Quote:

Originally posted by RobertR i believe that an amp cannot create a soundstage thats not in the recording but it can perhaps inhibit the perception of same by not reproducing details or "clues" that yield soundstage.

Looks like you've just answered your own question.

 

[tom hankins]

Quote:

Originally posted by RobertR to clarify my original question: how can 2 solid state or 2 tube amps differ in soundstage not solely an issue of tube vs. transistor. i believe that an amp cannot create a soundstage thats not in the recording but it can perhaps inhibit the perception of same by not reproducing details or "clues" that yield soundstage.

The amps may not produce something that isn't already there.....but they sure can affect the way it's presented.